Worthless Information For Those Who Want To Know

[zumbini 5717]

Between March 4 and March 10, four asteroids flew past Earth – and no one knew they were coming.

 

2013 ET (the largest of the four at 40m across) was only discovered on March 3rd, by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey. The asteroid was originally thought to be the size of a city block, but radar observations at NASA's Goldstone observatory confirmed the smaller dimension.

 

2013 EC20 (7m across), was discovered March 7, and at its closest approach was less than half the distance to the Moon away from Earth.

 

2013 EC is about 12m long and was discovered on March 2, just two days before its flyby on March 4.

 

2013 EN20 is only 7m across, and again was discovered just days before its closest approach (March 7 for a March 10 flyby).

 

This group of four asteroids comes only weeks after the 2012 DA14 flyby and the meteor explosion over Russia.

 

NASA is directed to track all near-Earth objects (NEOs) 1km (0.6 miles) or larger by US Congress, and the space agency estimates 95% of the larger NEOs are known, however it is estimated that only 10% of the smaller NEOs have been discovered.

 

About 100 tons of space material hits the Earth every day, but objects the size of the meteor in Russia are only likely to strike the planet every 100 years.

 

References:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/10/asteroid-2013-et-earth-space-rocks_n_2845906.html

http://www.space.com/20149-asteroids-buzz-earth-week.html

[oldtexasdog 728]

Lakeview Gusher Starts Spewing Oil (1910)

Modern oil-drilling technology includes safety features such as blowout preventers, but when the Lakeview Gusher exploded in 1910, such safeguards were nonexistent. The result was one of the largest oil spills in

history. Located in Kern County, California, the out-of-control oil well created rivers of crude oil that workers rushed to contain with makeshift dams. Though it never caught fire, it eventually released some 9 million barrels of oil. When

was it finally brought under control?

[Blues Pwr 584]

Quote

Lakeview Gusher Starts Spewing Oil (1910)

Modern oil-drilling technology includes safety features such as blowout preventers, but when the Lakeview Gusher exploded in 1910, such safeguards were nonexistent. The result was one of the largest oil spills in

history. Located in Kern County, California, the out-of-control oil well created rivers of crude oil that workers rushed to contain with makeshift dams. Though it never caught fire, it eventually released some 9 million barrels of oil. When

was it finally brought under control?

 

 

It took 18 mo.  control the gusher, that initally spewed 18,000 barrels a day and peaked at 90,000 barrels a day before being brought under control in Sept. 1911 

[oldtexasdog 728]

Some people who became homeless during the Depression would ride on railroad cars because they didn't have money to travel. Some famous men who rode the rails were William O. Douglas (1898-1980), U.S. Supreme Court Justice from

1939-1975; novelist Louis L'Amour (1908-1988); and folk singer Woody Guthrie (1912-1967). Some scholars claim that more than 50,000 people were injured or killed while jumping trains.

[oldtexasdog 728]

The Number of the Beast

According to the Book of Revelation in the Christian Bible, the Number of the Beast is a

numeral associated with an unspecified creature of evil. Though some believe

that the beast itself is Satan, the biblical language is vague enough to have

led to numerous other interpretations, such as the theory that the number

actually represents the Roman emperor Nero. Most translations of the Bible

render the number as 666, but many scholars believe that earlier translations

cite what other number?

[B-Man 1876]

616

[kve777 2567]

777     

[TNRabbit 364]

665: The Neighbor of the Beast

[Daddyjt 2579]

Lets see... Number of the beast....

 

Easy!

 

TFM 75 :-)

[zumbini 5717]

The American Meteor Society has received over 500 reports of a bright meteor that occurred near 2000 (8:00pm EDT) on Friday evening March 22, 2013. The witnesses range from along the Atlantic coast ranging from Maine to North Carolina. This object was also seen as far inland as Ohio. Individual reports may be viewed in the 2013 AMS Fireball Table. Refer to event #667 for 2013.

For those not familiar with meteors and fireballs, a fireball is a meteor that is larger than normal. Most meteors are only the size of small pebbles. A meteor the size of a softball can produce light equivalent to the full moon for a short instant. The reason for this is the extreme velocity at which these objects strike the atmosphere. Even the slowest meteors are still traveling at 10 miles per SECOND, which is much faster than a speeding bullet. Fireballs occur every day over all parts of the Earth. It is rare though for an individual to see more than one or two per lifetime as they also occur during the day, on a cloudy night, or over a remote area where no one sees it. Observing during one of the major annual meteor showers can increase your chance of seeing another one of these bright meteors.

Meteors often appear much closer than they really are. There is often a common misconception that the object appeared nearby when in fact the actual flight path was several hundred miles away and was witnessed over several states. It is your perspective that makes meteors appear to strike the horizon when in fact they are still high in the atmosphere. This is much like a jetliner seen low in your sky. It appears low to you but for someone located many miles away in that direction, the jetliner is passing high overhead. Meteors become visible at approximately 50 miles above the Earth’s surface. Friction slows these objects down until they fall below the velocity necessary to produce light. At this point they still lie at least 5 miles high in the sky. They are invisible below this altitude and cannot be seen as they basically free falling to the ground at 200mph. Very few meteors actually reach the ground as 99.99% completely disintegrate while still 10-20 miles up in the atmosphere.

 

Robert Lunsford

American Meteor Society

 

amsmeteors.org/fireball_event/2013/667 

[oldtexasdog 728]

I smell a movie here?

Every good barber has tall tales to tell. But in the case of Albert Cornejo, the winding and often grandiose stories are actually true. That's because Cornejo not only cuts hair, he's a renowned sculptor and one of the most-awarded martial artists in the world today.

To those who know him, Cornejo is a living legend. But unlike some of his former contemporaries—such as Bruce Lee and Ed Parker—few outside the tightly knit community of Kenpo Karate have ever heard his name.

“If I do something, I have to be good at it,” Cornejo told Yahoo in a series of interviews as part of our Viewfinder video series. “But I never wanted the spotlight. For me, it is all about the passion and the work.”

By day, the 73-year-old athlete cuts hair at his modest barbershop tucked away inside a Santa Monica business park. There, he holds court with a truly unique collection of personalities, and a mixture of clients and social calls blend together as the day winds on.

But while most men his age have settled into the quiet life, it’s this barber himself who has the most interesting stories to tell.

Even with his seemingly laid-back demeanor, riding into the sunset does not come naturally to a man who spent decades practicing Kenpo Karate on the shores of the Pacific Ocean until sunrise.

In the early 1960’s, Cornejo was, in his words, “a poor Mexican kid” who wanted to learn how to fight. He wandered into a Kenpo Karate school owned by legendary founder Ed Parker, the man who singlehandedly brought Karate to the United States.

After just one session, Albert knew he had found his calling. Although too poor to afford the lessons, Parker saw something in Cornejo and offered to teach him for free. That act of generosity has stayed with Cornejo over the years: As he has risen through the ranks to become one of the most-decorated Kenpo Karate students in history, he has trained literally thousands of students and rarely asks for financial compensation.

The same ethic has carried over into his other pursuits.

After Karate, Cornejo’s second love is art. But while his sculptures have represented the U.S. at the World’s Fair. Perhaps his most impressive creation, a life-size horse carriage hand-crafted from bronze metal, rests under a sheet on the back porch of Cornejo’s small house.

But another interesting facet that has come to define Cornejo was his past refusal to sell his work for money. Famed art appraiser David W. Streets provided Cornejo with an estimate that his metal sculpture collection was worth more than $2 million but Cornejo says he was too prideful to sell his works. Now in his twilight years, Cornejo is open to selling his collection, though he would prefer it stay together as a whole.

It was while he was in the army that Cornejo learned to cut hair—and found a way to earn a pay check. Over the years, he has been the personal barber to Hollywood celebrities and politicians, including former President Ronald Reagan.

It was Kenpo that brought Cornejo into contact with many of his celebrity clients, who also included Red Buttons , Jack Dempsey, Lou Ferrigno, Bruce Lee, Stan Laurel and Lawrence Welk.

Technically, Cornejo even once cut Elvis Presley’s hair. But as he explains, that was a literal exercise not an ongoing relationship.

“Ed Parker brought Mr. Presely into my barbershop one day,” Cornejo said. “And I told him, ‘Mr. Presley, just please let me cut one hair off your head. Then, I can tell people I cut Elvis’ hair!’”

Today, most of Cornejo’s legacy is relegated to the framed photographs chronicling his previous brushes with fame. The dust gathering on the pictures serves as a reminder that the cost of Cornejo’s modesty and generosity is that he had been largely forgotten. And his chosen forms of artistry -- Kenpo Karate, metal sculpting and the life of a barber are all relegated to smaller parts of the culture than they once occupied.

But in late January, Cornejo received recognition from the Kenpo community—which has been a part of his life for more than 50 years—when he was awarded with a 10^th degree black belt, a true rarity in the martial arts community.

“Almost no one get s a 10^th degree anymore,” martial arts instructor and filmmaker Dino Vicencio told Yahoo. “It’s a pretty rare thing these days.”

The Kenpo community, including other living legends like Chuck Sullivan and Robert Temple, have tried to bestow the honor on Cornejo for a number of years, but he had always declined out of modesty.

“It’s embarrassing,” he said. “To get up and have everyone cheering for you.”

Still, for a man who has so often avoided the spotlight over the years, it was a fitting reward for a life focused on becoming the very best at what he does and using that knowledge to help others.

After he received the award, Cornjeo said, he was back at his barbershop early the next morning, trading stories with friends, clients and random people passing by his shop.

Everyone is a potential new friend to Cornejo. Coming into his circle means you become part of the ongoing epic story that is Albert Cornejo. And with any luck, his own tale will be one that survives beyond the man hundreds have come to know as “Sifu.”

[danowood 1242]

I wouldn't count this worthless, because many of us elderly aged folks can or will be affected as well as some that are not that old with heart attack issues.  I read an article about a doctor who was doing amazing things with the technological age of smart phones.  It has finally come to the front, and this may be usable information for someone who should monitor their condition. 

http://www.extremetech.com/computing/151134-worlds-smallest-blood-monitoring-implant-talks-to-a-smartphone-but-whose

 

[oldtexasdog 728]

Fan Death

There is a common belief in  South Korea that falling asleep in a closed room with an electric fan running

can lead to death. Cases of suspected fan death are sometimes reported by the media, and new fans are equipped with automatic timers as a precaution. Though fan death is technically possible, as the use of a fan can hasten dehydration

and thus lead to heat exhaustion, the more popular ideas about how fans might kill people have all been debunked by science.

 What are some of those theories?

[kve777 2567]

Quote

Fan Death

There is a common belief in  South Korea that falling asleep in a closed room with an electric fan running

can lead to death. Cases of suspected fan death are sometimes reported by the media, and new fans are equipped with automatic timers as a precaution. Though fan death is technically possible, as the use of a fan can hasten dehydration

and thus lead to heat exhaustion, the more popular ideas about how fans might kill people have all been debunked by science.

 What are some of those theories?

 

"Fans cause hypothermia"

Hypothermia is abnormally low body temperature caused by inadequate thermoregulation in humans. As the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and thus supposedly more prone to hypothermia. People who believe in this theory think that a fan operating in a closed room all night will lower the temperature of the room to the point of causing hypothermia.^[5]

Empirical measurements show, however, that the fan does not cause the room temperature to drop; if anything, it should rise slightly because of friction and the heat output of the fan motor, but even this is negligible. Fans actually lower body temperature by increasing the convection around a person's body so that heat flows into the air more easily, and by the latent heat of vaporization as perspiration evaporates from the body. However, there is no scientific study which indicates that this effect would be sufficient to cause hypothermia unless the temperature were already very low.

[edit]"Fans cause asphyxiation"

It is alleged that fans may cause asphyxiation in humans due to oxygen displacement and carbon dioxide intoxication.^[5][6][7][8] In the process of human respiration, inhaled fresh air is exhaled with a lower concentration of oxygen gas (O₂), and higher concentration of carbon dioxide gas (CO₂), causing a gradual reduction of O₂ and buildup of CO₂ in a completely unventilated room.^[9] Other indoor sources of carbon dioxide include burning fossil fuels, such as a gas-fueled water heater, and seepage through foundations in areas of high CO₂ soil content.^[10] Carbon dioxide is a colorless, odorless gas, and because it weighs 1.5 times more than normal air,^[11] it tends to concentrate toward the floor,^[8]depending on temperature and air currents. In South Korea, some people sleep on traditional floor mats called yos, while others prefer western-style beds, and floor vents may be absent in rooms equipped with radiant underfloor heating, called ondol.^[12]

According to The Straight Dope website run by the Chicago Reader, asphyxiation is an unlikely cause of fan death because "few rooms are totally sealed, and the fan would tend to keep CO₂ and other gases well mixed".^[6][edit]

 

[PDR 889]

Tripping over them in the middle of the night when I go for a late night pee.....

[oldtexasdog 728]

 

 

[oldtexasdog 728]

 

 

Cholesterol-Lowering Drops Could Be Key to Saving Sight

Macular degeneration is one of the leading causes of blindness in people over 60, but it may not be for much longer. Preliminary research suggests that cholesterol-lowering eye drops could prevent the disease's progression and save the sight of those afflicted. In older adults, it appears that macrophages, immune cells that protect the body by ingesting foreign particles and infectious microorganisms, fail to effectively expel cholesterol. In the eye, this can lead to the creation of new blood vessels, causing rapid and pronounced vision loss. Preventing the buildup of lipids in the first place could potentially halt this process.

[Daddyjt 2579]

111,111,111 squared is 12,345,678,987,654,321

[kve777 2567]

Jeez! Let me get my glasses!

[oldtexasdog 728]

 

 

Keeping Your Cloud Active in the Afterlife

As data storage and communication become more and more cloud based, it becomes increasingly apparent that companies that provide these services must address the issue of what happens to data after a user passes on. In the past, families have had to sue e-mail providers for access to the accounts of deceased loved ones, but Google has unveiled a new feature, called Inactive Account Manager, that should obviate the need for such legal actions and hopefully save the bereaved a lot of heartache. The tool gives Google users the ability to "will" e-mail, contacts, photos, music, and other data to preselected contacts after a set period of account inactivity.

[tlkohler 96]

Quote

Keeping Your Cloud Active in the Afterlife

As data storage and communication become more and more cloud based, it becomes increasingly apparent that companies that provide these services must address the issue of what happens to data after a user passes on. In the past, families have had to sue e-mail providers for access to the accounts of deceased loved ones, but Google has unveiled a new feature, called Inactive Account Manager, that should obviate the need for such legal actions and hopefully save the bereaved a lot of heartache. The tool gives Google users the ability to "will" e-mail, contacts, photos, music, and other data to preselected contacts after a set period of account inactivity.

 

I suppose this really is no different than what a will does for personal property and so it has a place.

[oldtexasdog 728]

 

 

Bessie Smith (1894)

When Smith was just a teen, she became the protégée of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, one of the earliest blues singers. After making recordings, she quickly became the favorite singer of the jazz public. The power and somber beauty of her voice, coupled with songs representing every variety of the blues, earned her the title "Empress of the Blues." Numerous critics have regarded her as the greatest of all jazz artists, and her fame increased enormously after her death in what tragic accident?

[Blues Pwr 584]

Quote

Bessie Smith (1894)

When Smith was just a teen, she became the protégée of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, one of the earliest blues singers. After making recordings, she quickly became the favorite singer of the jazz public. The power and somber beauty of her voice, coupled with songs representing every variety of the blues, earned her the title "Empress of the Blues." Numerous critics have regarded her as the greatest of all jazz artists, and her fame increased enormously after her death in what tragic accident?

 

 

On September 26, 1937, Smith was critically injured in a car accident while traveling along U.S. Route 61 between Memphis, Tennessee, and Clarksdale, Mississippi. Her lover, Richard Morgan, was driving and, probably mesmerized by the long stretch of straight road, misjudged the speed of a slow-moving truck ahead of him. Tire marks at the scene suggested that Morgan tried to avoid the truck by driving around its left side, but he hit the rear of the truck side-on at high speed. The tailgate of the truck sheared off the wooden roof of Smith's old Packard. Smith, who was in the passenger seat, probably with her right arm or elbow out the window, took the full brunt of the impact. Morgan escaped without injuries.

 

The first people on the scene were a Memphis surgeon, Dr. Hugh Smith (no relation), and his fishing partner Henry Broughton. In the early 1970s, Dr. Smith gave a detailed account of his experience to Bessie's biographer Chris Albertson. This is the most reliable eyewitness testimony about the events surrounding Bessie Smith's death.

 

After stopping at the accident scene, Dr. Smith examined Bessie Smith, who was lying in the middle of the road with obviously severe injuries. He estimated she had lost about a half-pint of blood, and immediately noted a major traumatic injury to her right arm; it had been almost completely severed at the elbow.^[12] But Dr. Smith was emphatic that this arm injury alone did not cause her death. Although the light was poor, he observed only minor head injuries. He attributed her death to extensive and severe crush injuries to the entire right side of her body, consistent with a "sideswipe" collision.^[13]

 

Broughton and Dr. Smith moved the singer to the shoulder of the road. Dr. Smith dressed her arm injury with a clean handkerchief and asked Broughton to go to a house about 500 feet off the road to call an ambulance.

 

By the time Broughton returned approximately 25 minutes later, Bessie Smith was in shock. Time passed with no sign of the ambulance, so Dr. Smith suggested that they take her into Clarksdale in his car. He and Broughton had almost finished clearing the back seat when they heard the sound of a car approaching at high speed. Dr. Smith flashed his lights in warning, but the oncoming car failed to stop and plowed into the doctor's car at full speed. It sent his car careening into Bessie Smith's overturned Packard, completely wrecking it. The oncoming car ricocheted off Dr. Smith's car into the ditch on the right, barely missing Broughton and Bessie Smith.^[14]

 

The young couple in the new car did not have life-threatening injuries. Two ambulances arrived on the scene from Clarksdale; one from the black hospital, summoned by Mr. Broughton, the other from the white hospital, acting on a report from the truck driver, who had not seen the accident victims.

 

Bessie Smith was taken to Clarksdale's G.T. Thomas Afro-American Hospital, where her right arm was amputated. She died that morning without regaining consciousness. After Smith's death, an often repeated but now discredited story emerged about the circumstances; namely, that she had died as a result of having been refused admission to a "whites only" hospital in Clarksdale. Jazz writer/producer John Hammond gave this account in an article in the November 1937 issue of Down Beat magazine. The circumstances of Smith's death and the rumor promoted by Hammond formed the basis for Edward Albee's 1959 one-act play The Death of Bessie Smith.^[15]

 

"The Bessie Smith ambulance would not have gone to a white hospital, you can forget that." Dr. Smith told Albertson. "Down in the Deep South cotton country, no ambulance driver, or white driver, would even have thought of putting a colored person off in a hospital for white folks."^[16]

 

Smith's funeral was held in Philadelphia a little over a week later on October 4, 1937. Her body was originally laid out at Upshur's funeral home. As word of her death spread through Philadelphia's black community, the body had to be moved to the O.V. Catto Elks Lodge to accommodate the estimated 10,000 mourners who filed past her coffin on Sunday, October 3.^[17]

 

Contemporary newspapers reported that her funeral was attended by about seven thousand people. Far fewer mourners attended the burial at Mount Lawn Cemetery, in nearby Sharon Hill. Gee thwarted all efforts to purchase a stone for his estranged wife, once or twice pocketing money raised for that purpose.^[18]

 

The grave remained unmarked until August 7, 1970, when a tombstone—paid for by singer Janis Joplin and Juanita Green, who as a child had done housework for Smith—was erected.^[19]

Dory Previn wrote a song of Janis Joplin and the tombstone called "Stone for Bessie Smith" on her album Mythical Kings and Iguanas.

 

The Afro-American Hospital, now the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, was the site of the dedication of the fourth historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail.^[20]

[Balok 671]

I was going to guess that she choked to death while eating a TV dinner.

[oldtexasdog 728]

 

 

The Van de Graaff Generator

Invented in 1929 by American physicist Robert Van de Graaff, the Van de Graaff generator is a device in which electrically charged particles are sprayed on a moving belt and carried to an insulated terminal in a hollow metal sphere, building up to create a lightning-like discharge. The first model was made using an ordinary silk ribbon from a five-and-dime store, but later models proved capable of generating millions of volts. Where is the world's largest Van de Graaff generator on display?